With the datapad recovered you meet with Lerecti at the designated spot. The android is very happy with your success and gives you the sandstone tablet. The artifact feels old but is in good shape. The carvings are clearly visible.
Lerecti says
"Thank you so much, with those proofs my chances of proving my innocence raise substantially. I wish you all the best, I am not sure what do you need this tablet for, but I took this one from Karelite
Bogdin on Verces. He had a second one but it was undergoing some analysis and I was not able to get it. Don't cross his path, he is very dangerous person." Lerect fares you well and leaves.
After contacting Venture-Captain Arvin he congratulates you and sends you an address of a good restaurant. He assures you that the ship Loreseeker was sent to you and should arrive at Aballon the next day.
After a relaxing evening and a good night's sleep, you come to docking bay 31 where a Lorseeker is awaiting you. From the ship comes out a 3 feet tall furry figure, he is covered with blue fur and has a green crest of fur on his head. Seein you all the skittermander smiles broadly and runs in your direction. In few quick steps, he runs towards Oz and gives him a hug.
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"Arving asked me to hug you first! He said that you will love it. You must be Oz right? My name is Buddy, Buddy Jabo. I flew this ship here from Absalom Station. It was not that big of a deal, Arvin thought that it can save you some time."
The skitter turns his head towards Charlie-X
"Oh, wow. You are so... square. Charlie right? You look like a strong chap? Do you wrestle? My friend Mujina wrestles a lot, you know. Apparently, the most important things are the legs, and not the six furry arms. What an absurd! Although you only have two arms, so maybe for you the legs are the way to go."
The skitter then turns towards K
"Uhhh! You are Kaixik right? I heard of shirrens before. What number am I thinking of? It is 3, I am always thinking about 3 you know. It is a funny number."
The skitter rambles on, and on and on. You wonder if the lonely trip from Absalom Station to Aballon made him accumulate all those words that he now needs to spit out at anyone.
The he turns to Smoky
"Oh man! You are a bear! How awesome is that! Wow, Smoky right? May I take a picture with you! Joe would be so envious of not meeting you. But be careful on that one, she takes joy in stabbing alies with her syringes. " Buddy quickly hugs Smoky and takes a few pictures with his comm unit.
"The ship is all yours! Arvin left you a message onboard and a direction where to go. It is marked as read, for some reason, I don't know why..."
The Loreseeker, one of the Starfinder Society's most prestigious exploration vessels, makes its way out of Aballom. The ship gracefully weaves through the light traffic of spacefaring vessels. Aside from a near-miss with an impatient kasathan transport, the trip out of the planet's orbit is uneventful. Once at a safe distance, the Loreseeker speeds up for a full-burn towards the nearby Diaspora asteroid field.
You listen to the message sent to you by Arvin
"Take a look at the report from the second dream. After discussing the matter with the Silverbrew clan they offered one of the tablets as a price for helping them regain control over the mining facility. It was assaulted by space pirates. The travel time there should give you plenty of time to get accustomed to the ship. Good luck Starfinders!" you can see a message of the dream and the information provided on the computer screen.
It takes you 4 days to reach the asteroid field. The mining facility is inactive and surrounded by a field of varying-sized asteroids. Thankfully, the rocks are in a relatively stable orbit, making the approach simple enough to not require a Piloting check. The facility rests atop a particularly large asteroid, and the telltale yellow hazard striping of dwarven architecture can be seen from cursory visual scans.
The entire space around the complex appears to be completely abandoned. You can use the ship's sensors to scan the surroundings.
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Smoky sits down at one of the undersized chairs.....why haven't the Starfinders figured yet that they have some 'plus' sized species applying to be Starfinders...but yet still only put puny sized beds and seats in their ships.....
Doing her best, she carefully types into the computer to see if she can figure anything out..
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Oz sighs as he settles in to the pilot's chair, never seeming to find it quite comfortable enough to relax in. As the Loreseeker approaches the asteroid field, he flips on the intercom.
"This is your pilot speaking. We've arrived at dusty space rock number...who cares, out of 1 million plus and change. Off to our port side, you'll see the empty void of space between us and our sun, Matara. Say the word and I'll fire our engines right towards it. Stay tuned for my morning show, bright and surly every morning at o-dark 30."
Nevertheless, he eases into the controls and flies the ship where the smarter Starfinders want to go in order to complete their scans.
With a little help from her friends, Smoky was able to scan the asteroid field. She detects multiple power signatures. One that is most certainly a ship but there are few others somewhere hidden within the asteroids.
As soon as Smoky conducts the initial scan, a slim, dagger-like vessel emerges from a hiding spot between two particularly large asteroid clusters, its olive-colored hull showing signs of recent and incomplete repairs. It approaches at a slow, cautious speed.
The hologram of a ysoki dressed in fine clothes and gaudy jewelry appears in the Loreseeker’s bridge, a wide grin on his face.
"You’ve come a long way, travelers. You can call me Mr. Smiles. I’m everyone’s best friend around these parts."
The ysoki, Mr. Smiles, looks off to the side, nodding at some unheard comment.
"Of course. Crank, Stock, Shell, Shuffle, and Breach all say hi. So, what can Her humble grandchildren do for you?"
You recognize 'Her humble grandchildren' as a saying sometimes used by followers of Lao Suo Po, a neutral evil goddess of assassins, rats, and thieves.
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She psychically sends to her allies, "It sounds like this ysoki--and their brood?...littermates?--are worshippers of Lao Suo Po. So, this likely won't turn out great in the end for one group of us....but keep them talking as much as you can Kaixik...."
Hoping that Kaixik can keep the chattering ysoki talking...maybe by summoning their inner skittermander maybe....Smoky does her best to covertly start to scan the ship, using the ships duonode to help.
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Summoning both his psychic abilities of persuasion and his years spent working in marketing for AbadarCorp, Kaixik engages Mr. Smiles in conversation .
"Greetingsh Misshter Smilesh!" Kaixik clacks out cheerfully through his mandibles. "And hello to Crank, Stock, Shell, Shuffle, and Breach ash well. Thish is the Shtarfinder vesshle exploring theshe ashteroids on the behalf of Ulrika Clan Holdingsh. Would you happen to know the locashion of any rare mineral diposhits? We can pay sheveral thoushand credits for informashion on ashteroids with a composhition of greater than five pershent of any of the following: trishite, psycite, anabolax, obtanium, unobtanium, ununobtanium, phosphorus, nickle, prisite, hylaxium..."
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Unsure what's going on with all this science talk Charlie sits in his chair and flips through the manual of the controls he's assigned to.
Matching the numbers on the overview pages corresponding with the controls in front of him.
" ...so, this button does _that_ ..that's a useful one to remember.."
Only looking up from his study when he hears the mentioning of ununobtanium
Running his finger along the line he's reading Charlie pushes a small lever which according to what he's reading should send additional power to the sensor array boosting the reading Smokey is getting at his station
Mr. Smiles nods to Kaixik saying and significantly frowns hearing about Ulrika Clan Holdings
"Ulrika Clan Holdings? We are not too fond of dwarfs, they are good for getting things out of asteroids for us to liquidity on the market if you catch my drift. Unobtanium? Shuffle have you ever heard of the unobtanium? Is it the material that they make the thermal cups from? No? "
The Ysoki steps away from the screen for a moment but quickly comes back
"They scanned us? Why didn't you tell me sooner? I didn't ask you to look what materials are used for thermal cups!"
During that time Smoky learns what there is to learn on the enemy ship. The pieces that catch Smoky's eye are luxurious crew quarters, if he checks the catalog information about Loreseeker he sees that you only have crew quarters. Apparently, that was an upgrade that Arvin was not interested in buying. Maybe it would have better-adapted beds for aliens taller than 6 feet.
You can hear saying through the coms
"Remember mates, not all treasure is silver or gold. Let us shoot them out of the sky and lay our hands on this unobtanium!"
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As Kaixik starts to ramble about unobtanium and all the other fictional metals....Smoky knows that the gig is about up....she does her best trying for one last scan...to see what is around the area.
Staying in the science officer position, Smoky will do her best to attempt to target the opposing ship's core. She leaves the duonode alone for the gunner(s) and maybe the pilot.
Smoky was able to recognize one reading as a hidden turret in the asteroid field. He was able to cut the power out making it useless, but it might not be the only one.
Mr Smiles show up again on your screens
"Are you Chickening out? Come on, make it fun for us and at least try to defend" mocks you the enemy captain
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Hearing Kaixik tell him to take the gun Charlie frantically flips through his manual as he looks up how to actually target anything with one of the ship guns.
Scrolling through the options menu on his screen he passes over the forward, port and starboard options
" ..turret....good, let's pick that one"
Charlie then pushes a button and hopes for the best, one finger of one hand on the trigger and his other hand covering his eyes.
(Captain + ship bonus)
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Oz looks at where the other vessel flies and sighs. "How droll. They think I'm just going to fly straight at them. Psh. Get ready for some lateral G's back there."
Twisting the vectors on the thrusters full-starboard, Oz pushes the Loreseeker into a slide stunt to port.
If that would be the movie, the dynamic music would start playing and a roaring sound of engines would overwhelm the spectators.
Yet it is not a movie and in a vacuum sound does travel. But how do you hear the music? You spot that Mr. Smiles left the comm unit transmission open.
The River Rat fliest first trying to hide and lay a trap behind the group of asteroids. But Oz has a different plan for the battle ahead, with a few changes to the thrusters the Loreseeker, the proud of Starfinder Society slides from the side, giving Charlie an opportunity to fire the salvo.
With a motivating speech telepathy Kaixik aids Charlie in his doing.
The shots were fired and even that Smoky aimed the shots at the enemy targeting system the turret did not break through the shields.
But enemy ship did not just sat there waiting to be taken down. The coilgun mounted turned towards starfinders and had its own success smacking into your front shields.
You can imagine the smile on the Ysoki face when they saw what Oz was doing. The Ysoki pilot pushed the thrusters to the maximum just to compensate and do the flip to meet you face to face. But the flip never happened.
The enemy gunner however was doing his job well. The coilgun begun to shredd Loreseeker front shields.
Charlie destroys River Rat's aft shields.
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Oz grumbles and eases the ship forward once again, still angling the thrust-vector to present a more evasive target while still hoping to give a good firing arc should Charlie opt to fire more than one weapon at a time, but is too focused on positioning and not on defense, it seems.
(Failure - AC 16; TL 17)
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Hearing the words of encouragement Charlie peeks through his fingers and sees that the manual he was leafing through is open to the section "firing multiple weapons at once"
" ...that sounds....interesting..."
Using 2 fingers this time around on 2 different buttons Charlie his the fire controls for both the forward laser and the turret
The enemy ship gained speed towards the asteroid field, but before it crashed into the rocks it turned around towards the starfinder ship. The turret started firing, but this time their gunner was not aiming well. Maybe it was straight flying from Oz that made the enemy gunner miss, who knows. The enemy engineer restores some of the shields.
Smoky rebalanced the shields while Charlie with some encouragement from their Captain K destroyed the enemy front shields.
River rat was flying right at you, and before crushing into you the pilot changed the directions flying right above you. You could even see the grin on the enemy captain's furry snout.
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Grimacing as the enemy pilot flies past them, Oz keeps in mind that the River Rat's forward shields are down. "Hard turn coming," is all the warning he gives anybody else on board before turning hard to port, whipping around evasively to end up nose-to-nose with those dirty rats once again.
(Success - AC 18; TL 19)
As the Loreseeker takes a turn, suddenly from one of the asteroids the hidden turret opened fire, damaging starboard shields.
As Oz puts Loreseeker in front of River rat, the Ysoki engineer sweats really hard to restore some of the front shields. Barely but he does make it.
The River Rat ship turret completely misses, as evading techniques turn out to be too much for the enemy.
Smoky in the meantime turns out to be a capable engineer fixing some of the shields.
K keeps on encouraging Charlie to shoot the rats out of the sky.
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Getting a bit overenthusiastic by his shots being incredibly lucky so far and actually hitting Charlie continues to push multiple buttons hoping for the best.
And completely ignoring the advice his Captain is giving him to focus on one gun at a time
"...sorrrrry. I'll go back to shooting one gun at a time now."
As the ship rocks at the impact to it's shields Charlie asks out loud
"Hey, where did that shot come from?"
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Oz sighs again, and decides he's tired of running the ship around. He uses the ship's ventral maneuvering thrusters to evasively reposition the ship on the vertical axis, but keeps the same relative position, forcing the River Rat to either back off, or fly right through them!
The added benefit is that the asteroids and the River Rat itself keep that turret from getting a shot at them, to boot.
(Success - AC 18; TL 19)
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Smoky grumbles and ponderously moves back to a Science officer computer, paws-ing only long enough to mentally say something.
"I agree with Kaixik...Charlie stop reading the manual and just shoot with the gun you have figured out...."
Smoky does her best to rebalance the shields again....
Looks like 42 pts in 4 quadrants, so 11/10/10/11 before taking another shot.
The River Rat pilot again tries to fly next to Oz, but this time the wrapped Elebrian was expecting it. Keeping Loreseeker safe he was able to force the enemy mistake which they might pay for.
The enemy engineer was able to restore some of the shields. Just like Smoky was able to balance the shields on Loreseeker.
Despite K best efforts, Charlie's shot went off the target. He got a bit too excited with the option of aiming multiple guns.
The River Rat gun hit the back shields of Loreseeker but was unable to destroy them entirely
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As the Fly-by takes places Charlie wonders why there's blinking lights and beeping going on all over his console but having a big flashing "fire" button appear Charlie pushes the button before pressing the fire controles again to fire the turret at the enemy once more.
possible +2 or +4 bonus depending on captain's action
With a good round of Charlie's well-aimed shots, the River Rat's one of the engines went down.
You can see the enemy ship to take a tight turn behind the cluster of asteroids and begun to make their way away from you.
A communication opens again where you can see a video of Mr.Smiles
"Ok Starfinders, we will let you go this time! But beware the River Rat! Mark my words." he brings his snout closer to the camera
"The next time we will not be that generous!"
You can see other Ysokis running in the background trying to patch the damaged systems.
After few heartbeats, you receive a new communication this time on your screens you can see a female dwarf still with googles on her forehead
"Nice flying, Starfinders. That ought to teach those skulking thieves to keep away from what isn’t theirs! Now then, as promised, we’ll send you the one chunk of the tablet they didn’t get their grubby hands on. And after you get that, we get to sweep the station for any other ‘surprises’ they might have left behind."
She looks to the side and nods her head to something
"If we will find any traces of the remaining tables on the station we will let you know. "
After getting your hands on the second tablet you reach out to Venture-Captain Arvin
"I've sent you the third and last dream that you saw previously in my office."
"We got some information from the Silverbrew Clan after they regained control on their stations. One of the three tablets that they discovered there they kept and gave to you, but it seems that the remaining two pieces were sold by that Mr. Smiles to Karelite Bogdin from Verces. One of them were stolen by Lerecti whom you met on Aballon. So it seems that you should head towards Verces and recover the last tablet."
Arvin opens something on his computer and says
"Keep the Loreseeker for now it might make your travel faster. Beware that verthani Karelite. If the allegation is true he is dipping his fingers in some nasty business. Good luck!"